October 2010…

What a fabulous fall we have had. This is absolutely my favorite time of year. I love the colorful trees, the crisp air, the smell of campfire in the atmosphere, the holiday decor, the candy… :)  This is also the season of celebration in our household. We start off with Avery’s birthday, then Halloween, then our Wedding Anniversary, Thanksgiving, my birthday, Christmas, Anika’s birthday, New Year’s, etc. What a fun, fun time!

A few weeks ago we took the girls to Circle S Farm, which is basically a fall festival at a pumpkin farm. We had a great time, and were so happy that Sean could take off a bit of time from the studies to be with us.

 

Avery LOVED the animals. Anika wouldn’t go near them.  

Last Thursday was Trick-Or-Treating in Grove City, Ohio. It was a particularly cold evening, which was kind of a bummer, but we managed to have a great time anyway. The girls dressed up as princesses. To be more specific, Anika was Cinderella and Avery was Sleeping Beauty. Anika insisted on calling me “Fairy Godmother” all day, which also meant that she expected me to cater to her every wish. Nice try, kid.  

It was a little too windy for Avery.

Anika is a total nut, and I LOVE it!   

Silly Faces!

 

So here’s a not-so-funny Halloween story. Every year I take the girls to a portrait studio to have their pictures taken. My favorite October decoration is the 5 x 7 pictures of my girls in their costumes. I just LOVE seeing how small they once were and how cute they looked as little lady-bugs or cheerleaders. So yesterday I got them all dressed up and off we went. When we entered the busy studio, I heard the oooh’s and aaah’s all around us. There were whispers of “Oh look at those adorable princesses.” Truly, I was beaming. Two of the cutest kids in the whole wide world were by my side, and they were mine. As we waited for our turn, the girls played nicely at the Lego-table. I expected that everything would go wonderfully, as it always has. Boy was I in for a real treat. (Now read that sentence one more time, only this time make sure that it is laced in sarcasm.) We were escorted to our picture area, and immediately the girls went timid. They both started to cling to my side. Soon there was whining. I pulled out the M&M’s as bribery. All they needed to do was stand 2 feet away from me. Not happening. Before I knew it, the whining turned into crying. After 5-10 minutes of trying every trick in the book to get these girls off my hips and into picture mode, I turned to the two photographers and said, “See ya!” I grabbed my bags and we headed for the door. Oh wait. We weren’t just quietly walking out of the studio. I was holding Avery bat-man style as she kicked her legs and screamed at the top of her lungs. Anika was close behind doing everything she could to out-scream her sister. I was angry, annoyed, and embarrassed to say the least. Remember that “beaming” Angell that entered the studio? Yeah, she was long gone at this point. Maybe this all happened because of my pride in thinking that my kids were the cutest kids of all. Maybe this week, when we get up enough guts to give it another go, I’ll enter the studio thinking, “Ah, these kids aren’t all that cute.” Maybe then they will act like normal human beings. We’ll see. The kicker to the story is when I called my mom not long after the episode. I needed a good friend to listen to my story of a frustrating morning and tell me that everything would be okay. What did I get instead? A big, “You deserve it!!!” Apparently when I was three years old I did the exact same thing. Well, Mom, thanks for not killing me.